16 
PLimr's NATUEA.L HISTORY. [Book XXIV 
cough and ulcerations of the viscera. The resin of the pine, 
too, is far from extensively used, and that of the other kinds 
is always boiled^ before use : on the various methods of boiling 
it, we have enlarged at sufficient length already/ 
As to the produce of the various trees, the resin of the tere- 
binth is held in high esteem, as being the most odoriferous and 
the lightest, the kinds ^ which come from Cyprus and Syria 
being looked upon as the best. Both these kinds are the 
colour of Attic honey ; but that of Cyprus has more body, and 
dries with greater rapidity. In the dry resins the qualities 
requisite are whiteness, purity, and transparency : but what- 
ever the kind, the produce of mountainous^ districts is always 
preferred to that of champaign countries, and that of a north- 
eastern aspect to that of any other quarter. Eesins"^ are dis- 
solved in oil as a liniment and emollient cataplasm for wounds ; 
but when they are used as a potion, bitter almonds^ are also 
employed. The curative properties of resins consist in their 
tendency to close wounds, to act as a detergent upon gatherings 
and so disperse them, and to cure affections of the chest. 
The resin of the terebinth ^ * it is used too, warmed, 
as a liniment for pains in the limbs, the application being re- 
moved after the patient has taken a walk in the sun. Among 
slave-dealers too, there is a practice of rubbing the bodies of 
the slaves with it, which is done with the greatest care, as a 
corrective for an emaciated appearance ; the resin having the 
property of relaxing the skin upon all parts of the body, and 
rendering it more capable of being plumped out by food.^ 
I^'ext after the resin of the terebinth comes that of the 
^ Boiled terebinthine, or turpentine, is still used, Fee says, in medicine ; 
that process disengaging the essential oil. 
4 In B. xvi. c. 22. 
^ Fee thinks that in reality these are terebinthines, and not resins. 
^ It has been generally remarked that aromatic plants grown on moun- 
tains have a stronger perfume than those of the plains ; Fee queries whether 
this extends to the resins. 
Though of little importance in modern medicine, resins and terebin- 
thines are still employed as the basis of certain plasters and other prepara- 
tions, 
® Such a potion as this, Fee says, would but ill agree with a person in 
robust health even. 
9 There would be no necessity whatever, Fee says, for such a process, a 
plentiful supply of food being quite sufficient for the purpose. Galen 
recommends frictions of terebinthine for the improvement of the health. 
